Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Man of Steel’ Soars to Number One

After months of feverish anticipation and a marketing campaign that left everyone at ScreenCrush practically speechless, 'Man of Steel' has arrived (amidst a flurry of mixed reviews) and taken its place at the top of the box office chart. Although the latest Superman film broke June box office records, it's yet to be seen whether or not the film is truly prepared for the long road ahead.

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Man of Steel

$113,080,000

$26,879

$125,080,000

2

This is the End

$20,500,000

$6,710

$32,800,000

3

Now You See Me

$10,320,000 (-45.8)

$3,348

$80,009,000

4

Fast and Furious 6

$9,433,000 (-51.9)

$2,795

$219,574,000

5

The Purge

$8,201,000 (-75.9)

$3,165

$51,845,000

6

The Internship

$7,000,000 (-59.6)

$2,059

$30,951,000

7

Epic

$6,000,000 (-49.5)

$1,904

$95,429,000

8

Star Trek Into Darkness

$5,660,000 (-50.5)

$2,428

$210,491,000

9

After Earth

$3,750,000 (-65.0)

$1,542

$54,200,000

10

Iron Man 3

$2,908,000 (-49.5)

$1,763

$399,610,000

With a weekend gross of $113 million (and a current total of $125 million), 'Man of Steel' is now the proud record holder of the biggest June opening of all time. This should be a cause for celebration -- even though its big 2013 superhero competition, 'Iron Man 3,' opened to much more six weeks ago. Massive weekend aside, 'Man of Steel' was not cheap and its $225 million budget is a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other costs associated with it. So while 'Man of Steel' is off to a terrific start, it's going to need strong, powerful legs to keep it running in the weeks ahead. Like 'Iron Man 3,' it's also going to rely on strong international business. It's been suggested that Warner Bros. won't be happy with anything less than a billion worldwide and it's still a little too early to tell if audiences love 'Man of Steel' enough to push it that far. Next week is going to be the real test here.

Although you can discuss the semantics of whether or not 'Man of Steel' is a proper hit all day, there's no denying that the $32 million five-day gross for 'This is the End' puts Seth Rogen's latest clearly in the "hit" column. Considering its small budget, the hilarious apocalyptic comedy has essentially paid for itself in its first week of release. With strong buzz, the film should be able to drive all the way to the $100 million mark if 'The Heat' doesn't completely steal its audience in two weeks. In any case, this is sweet, sweet vindication for Rogen after the disappointing 'The Green Hornet,' and it's probably earned him carte blanche on his next few gigs.

Beyond the new releases, it was a solid if not particularly spectacular weekend for everyone else. In third place, 'Now You See Me' continued to showcase impressive endurance, grossing an additional $10 million for an $80 million total. $100 million is all but assured at this point, which is more than anyone saw coming for a Jesse Eisenberg-led magician heist movie. Right below it, 'Fast and Furious 6' finally surpassed 'Fast Five' to become the highest grossing film in the franchise with $219 million. It's probably eyeing $250 million at this point, but it may go farther if 'World War Z' and 'White House Down' fail to connect.

Meanwhile, last week's champion, 'The Purge,' plummeted a massive 75% and fell to fifth place. With a $51 million gross, the low budget horror movie is a massive hit already and everyone can easily shrug off this drop, but this may put a pause on all of that sequel talk. Although horror movies generally do take steep second week drops, 75% is a huge deal that may represent more audience dissatisfaction than its opening weekend suggested.

As for the rest...

In sixth place, 'The Internship' continued Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's slow descent into irrelevance with a $7 million gross and a $30 million total. Once again, we'll just say that this movie was released about six years too late.

In seventh place, 'Epic' continued to be the quiet winner of the year, taking in $6 million for a $95 million total. This thing is going to cross $100 million in a few days and no one has been talking about it!

In eighth place, 'Star Trek Into Darkness' is officially starting to slow down, still about $37 million short of its predecessor. Not awful, but still... ouch.

In ninth place, 'After Earth' took another massive stumble and is looking like it may make less than 'Seven Pounds,' which was previously one of Will Smith's biggest bombs.

And finally, 'Iron Man 3' is just about to exit theaters and it's less than a million bucks from $400 million. It'll get there sometime tomorrow.

Next week sees 'World War Z' and 'Monsters University' arrive in theaters. Expect Pixar to take the number one spot and 'World War Z' to... well, who knows?